Given the grim nature of the weather forecast, even the small amount of play that was possible on Saturday could be viewed as a bonus.
Perhaps more could have taken place. Lord’s appeared dry and ready during an early lunch taken at 12:20 BST before play eventually began at 13:00.
The players yo-yoed on and off the field over the course of the next 70 minutes, with two delays before the weather had the final say at 14:10.
Just as in his 5-39 in the first innings, Robinson revelled in the conditions in his first Test for more two years. The damp conditions under the floodlights exacerbated the difficulty of batting on a surface that has been uneven for most of this match.
After New Zealand resumed on 37-3, Ravindra and Mitchell were the most likely of their remaining batters to dig in and made England’s task harder. Robinson dealt with them both.
Left-hander Ravindra was undone by a beauty. Robinson, from round the wicket, angled the ball in, then nipped it away off the surface and up the Lord’s slope. It defeated Ravindra’s defensive stroke and kissed the off stump. Almost unplayable.
Ravindra, the heir to Kane Williamson as New Zealand’s leading batter, has had an awful Test. Batting returns of nought and eight are added to two bad drops, which have been important in the context of a low-scoring match.
Knowing conditions were in their favour and time on the field was short, England crowded the bat with as many as seven close catchers.
And the Mitchell wicket went against a theory held by this England regime that a certain style of cricket cannot be successful in the Test arena.
“This 75mph, keeper up, dobbing it on a length – we know that doesn’t work in Test cricket, wherever you are,” was once the view of England director of cricket Rob Key.
One ball after England keeper Jamie Smith came up to the stumps, Robinson struck Mitchell on the pad. The review could not save Mitchell, who was frustrated to see the ball was shaving leg stump – another umpire’s call that has gone against the Black Caps in this match.
Two overs later, the weather made a terminal intervention, with the day abandoned at 17:30.
